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Plan for Amazon Headquarters in South Africa in Peril After Court Order

Published

2 years ago

March 21, 2022

JOHANNESBURG — A plan to construct African headquarters for the tech big Amazon in Cape City is in peril after a decide on Friday ordered development to cease, arguing that the builders had not correctly consulted Indigenous South Africans.

The $300 million growth had fueled a nasty feud inside Indigenous, or First Nations, communities over whether or not constructing on what many take into account sacred land would desecrate their historical past and tradition, or uplift it, for the reason that developer had promised to incorporate an Indigenous heritage middle.

The decide, Patricia Goliath of the Western Cape Excessive Court docket, discovered that the developer had exacerbated these divisions by participating in a biased session course of that excluded many Indigenous teams.

“The basic proper to tradition and heritage of Indigenous teams,” she wrote, was “underneath risk within the absence of correct session.”

The location of the event was most not too long ago a golf course and driving vary known as The River Membership. Though First Nations teams differ on what occurred at that precise location, there’s normal settlement that it belongs to a broader space the place their ancestors first fought off colonial invaders, and the place the primary colonial land theft occurred in South Africa.

Building began final 12 months after metropolis and Western Cape provincial officers accredited the challenge, regardless of considerations raised by some authorities businesses that the builders had not adequately vetted the views of Indigenous folks, or the methods by which the event would diminish the heritage worth of the positioning.

A First Nations group and a neighborhood residents’ affiliation filed a lawsuit to overturn the approvals of metropolis and provincial officers. In addition they requested a decide to halt development whereas the case was pending.

In her 79-page ruling, Decide Goliath mentioned that if a decide had been to seek out that the approvals had been improper, it could be troublesome for the events that filed the lawsuit to get correct reduction if the event had been at a sophisticated stage. Not solely did she say that development needed to cease, but additionally that the developer needed to seek the advice of additional with Indigenous folks.

“The decide principally went with reality and justice,” mentioned Leslie London, the president of the Observatory Civic Affiliation, the residents’ group that filed the lawsuit together with the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Conventional Council.

The courtroom should nonetheless assessment the choices by the town and province in approving the event to find out whether or not they’re legally legitimate.

An announcement launched by the property proprietor, Liesbeek Leisure Property Belief, mentioned solely that it was “deeply upset” by the decide’s choice and that it was contemplating its authorized choices.

A spokesman for Amazon didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Because the controversy has unfolded over the previous couple of years, Amazon has remained quiet. Throughout a courtroom listening to in January, a lawyer for the belief mentioned {that a} delay in development would basically kill the challenge as a result of Amazon is prone to pull out because the anchor tenant.

Final 12 months, Cape City officers had celebrated Amazon selecting its metropolis as “a base of operations on the African continent.” They mentioned the corporate would create jobs and bolster the area as a tech hub.

Decide Goliath didn’t appear moved by that argument.

“This matter in the end considerations the rights of Indigenous peoples,” she wrote. “The truth that the event has substantial financial, infrastructural and public advantages can by no means override the basic rights of First Nations peoples.”

After the Western Cape’s chief heritage authority mentioned that the builders had not performed sufficient to have interaction Indigenous folks, a bunch known as the First Nations Collective shaped in mid-2019 in favor of the event. Its leaders mentioned that they labored with the builders and that they acquired them to comply with construct a heritage middle and different options honoring First Nations folks as a part of the challenge.

The collective was a broad coalition of First Nations teams, mentioned Zenzile Khoisan, certainly one of its leaders, including that the session with the developer was efficient. The collective intends to attraction the decide’s choice and “now intensify the battle,” he mentioned.

Whereas Decide Goliath mentioned she was not casting aspersions on the collective and its assist for the event, she wrote that the developer had commissioned a report that relied totally on the collective’s views, whereas ignoring different Indigenous individuals who opposed the event.

“The present rigidity amongst First Nations Teams strengthens the necessity for significant engagement and correct session,” she wrote.

News

Atos crisis deepens as biggest shareholder ditches rescue plan

Published

25 mins ago

June 26, 2024

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Atos crisis deepens as biggest shareholder ditches rescue plan

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A rescue bid for French IT services group Atos led by its largest shareholder has collapsed, casting the future of the troubled group into doubt once again.

Atos said on Wednesday that the consortium led by Onepoint, an IT consultancy founded by David Layani, had withdrawn a proposal that would have converted €2.9bn of Atos debt into equity and injected €250mn of fresh funds into the struggling company.

“The conditions were not met to conclude an agreement paving the way for a lasting solution for financial restructuring,” Onepoint said in a statement on Wednesday.

The decision by Onepoint comes less than a month after Atos had picked its restructuring proposal over a competing plan from Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínsky. Atos said on Wednesday that Křetínsky had already indicated he wanted to restart talks.

Once a star of France’s tech scene, Atos is racing to strike a restructuring deal by next month as it struggles under its €4.8bn debt burden. It has cycled through multiple chief executives over the past three years and its shares have collapsed. They were down 12 per cent in early trading on Wednesday.

Atos also said it had received a revised restructuring proposal from a group of its bondholders.

“Discussions are continuing with the representative committee of creditors and certain banks on the basis of this proposal with a view to reaching an agreement as soon as possible,” the company said.

Jean-Pierre Mustier, former chief executive of Italian lender UniCredit, was installed as chair in October 2023 and given the task of putting Atos on a stable footing for the future. Since his appointment, several efforts to stabilise Atos through asset sales have fallen apart.

If talks with Křetínsky do restart, it will mark the Czech businessman’s third attempt to do a deal with Atos after an earlier plan to buy its lossmaking legacy business unravelled.

One of the people close to the talks said creditors had not necessarily become more receptive to Kretinsky’s plan given it cutting a larger chunk of the group’s debt.

The crisis at Atos has prompted the French government to intervene. It is currently seeking to acquire three parts of Atos that are deemed of importance to national security for up to €1bn.

Atos said on Wednesday it had concluded a deal with the French state that would give it so-called “golden shares” in a key Atos subsidiary, Bull SA. The agreement also gives the government the right to acquire “sensitive sovereign activities” in the event a third party acquired 10 per cent of the shares — or a multiple thereof — in either Atos or Bull.

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New Jersey gamer flew to Florida and beat fellow player with hammer, say police

Published

46 mins ago

June 26, 2024

Press Room

New Jersey gamer flew to Florida and beat fellow player with hammer, say police

An online gamer from New Jersey recently flew to Florida, broke into the home of a fellow player with whom he had feuded digitally but never met in person, and tried to beat him to death with a hammer, according to authorities.

The allegations leveled by the Nassau county, Florida, sheriff’s office against 20-year-old Edward Kang constitute an extreme example of a phenomenon that academics call “internet banging” – which involves online arguments, often between young people, that escalate into physical violence.

As Bill Leeper, the local sheriff, told it, Kang and the man he is suspected of attacking became familiar with each other playing the massively multiplayer online role-playing game ArcheAge.

The Korean game is supposed to no longer be available beginning Thursday, its publisher announced in April, citing a “declining number of active players”, as ABC News reported. But prior to the cancellation, Kang and the other player became locked in some sort of “online altercation”, Leeper said at a news briefing Monday.

Kang then informed his family that he was headed out of town to meet a friend he had made through gaming, Leeper recounted. The sheriff said Kang flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Jacksonville, Florida, and booked himself into a hotel near his fellow gamer’s home early Friday morning.

He had allegedly bought a hammer and a flashlight at a local hardware store, receipts for which deputies later found in Kang’s hotel room.

By early Sunday, Kang purportedly had put on black clothes, gloves and a mask, and he went into his target’s home through an unlocked door. He waited for the victim to get up to take a bathroom break from gaming – and then battered him with the hammer, Leeper said.

The alleged victim managed to wrestle Kang to the ground while screaming for help. The victim’s stepfather woke up after hearing the screams, rushed to his stepson’s side, helped take Kang’s hammer away and restrained him until deputies were called and they arrived, according to Leeper.

Deputies found blood at the home’s entrance and in the bedroom of the victim, Leeper added. The sheriff said the victim was brought to a hospital to be treated for “severe” head wounds while deputies jailed Kang on counts of attempted second-degree murder and armed burglary.

Leeper accused Kang of telling deputies that he carried out the violent home invasion because he believed the target to be “a bad person online”. Kang also allegedly asked investigators how much prison time was associated with breaking and entering as well as assault.

Attempted second-degree murder alone can carry up to 15 years. Leeper quipped that his only answer to Kang was: “It will be a long time before you play video games.”

Striking a more serious tone, Leeper urged people to be vigilant about and report to authorities any suspicious online behavior aimed at them. He also mentioned the importance of locking one’s home.

“This … serves as a stark reminder of the potential real-world consequences of online interaction,” Leeper said.